After the phenomenal success of Dave Malloy’s musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 this summer, Crow’s Theatre is joining forces again with the Musical Stage Company, and this time also with Soulpepper, to produce another Malloy musical: Octet, this September.
While Comet was an electropop thrilling large-cast operatic mix of philosophy and love inspired by Tolstoy’s iconic 19th-century Russian novel War and Peace, Octet is a chamber choir musical, exploring the lives of eight people of different ages and backgrounds who come together in a support group to try to solve their respective addictions to the internet. It’s funny, eerie and moving. It is also sung a cappella – no instruments at all but the eight voices.
Fascinated by the contrast between the shows, especially with many of the same creative team involved, I approached music director Ryan deSouza, whom I’d met back in 2023 while we were both at Crow’s Theatre: I was stage managing The Master Plan and he was rehearsing Comet.
Here is an abridged version of our wide-ranging chat on Thursday, Sept 4, 2025.
WN: I became obsessed with Comet, watching it come together like that, I have to say.
RdS: We were slightly obsessed with it, too. For everybody involved it has been such a special adventure. As Evan Buliung [Pierre in Comet] said, every 10 to 15 years, if you’re lucky, you get a show that changes your approach to theatre, that changes how you feel about what you do, and you know it’s something you’re going to hang onto for a long time.
The audience felt it too. I know some people who saw it 20, 30 times at both Crow’s and the Royal Alex.
Comet did something different from most other musicals; it was entertaining for certain, but also dropped in some thoughts and some big picture discussions to really challenge the audience to take it in a different way.
Would you say that Malloy does something similar with Octet? It seems very different from Comet or Ghost Quartet before that.
I guess different in what they are about – but how he approaches them musically is not. For me, his music is really complex. For example, Octet has big harmonies and really busy complex musical ideas telling the story, and then he balances that with utter simplicity, like the last song in Comet sung by Pierre and Natasha where it’s like Grade Two piano playing running triads, but so effective and actually so difficult.
It’s the same with Octet. There’s a song at the end of the show where it’s just one person singing a cappella, a beautiful, simple melody; and after you’ve spent an hour and a half with these really complex, thick, rich harmonies, to strip down to just one voice with nothing else going on – it’s like you earn it from Malloy. He takes his audience on a journey, which earns this moment of simplicity to land a really heartfelt thesis at the end of the show as he drops in this beautiful song. I think it’s part of his brilliance, I think he really finds a way to connect with his audience not only through complexity but also through simplicity and all in one show.
So how would you describe Octet for someone who hasn’t seen it? On the surface it is so different from Comet.
Comet followed a story with characters, whereas here we’re meeting people together for only a short time. It doesn’t have as much of a story arc. You’re not following somebody who might have a sound that goes through the show. Instead, each song is one person’s journey, and you get a little window into their life. And then they become a supporting character as you meet the next person.
And the music?
Malloy also uses so many musical styles in this show, for example, he drops in doo-wop and there is a clear homage to the style of the jazzy a cappella group the Swingle Singers who used vocables as well as words to create worlds with only their voices. Here the cast is taking on not only the role of the cast but the role of the orchestra – the soundtrack to a movie – it’s all encompassed in these eight people. It’s truly one of the most virtuosic things I have ever been part of. We learned this music, which is incredibly difficult, and then they’re left on their own. They get a pitch pipe, they hear a note, and then they sing a seven-minute song that is just their voices. No “I’m going to take a break now, there’s going to be a drum solo, or let’s throw a little guitar in there.” They have to provide the story all the way – but only with their voices.
It must be terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
For them, and for us. There’s no time to think. As soon as you stop to think you’ve lost the rhythm of the piece; you’ve lost the communication between yourself and the others.
At the same time, you have the director [Chris Abraham] asking “what are we trying to say here? Can we get it faster so we really stay in the conversation and not drop it and [have the audience] think ‘oh, we’re listening to a song?’”
I think that for me as the music director, that is the fun of this kind of a show. To say “we have to sing a song but I don’t want the audience to remember ‘here’s a song about internet addiction,’ but ‘here’s a scene.’” Chris is great at that. What we love about Chris is that he doesn’t think that a musical is a lesser art form or in its storytelling any different from a play.
Exactly. I know he loves musicals and actually started out directing them.
Yes he loves them and is always saying “This is a scene. We have to get to the bottom of it. What is the intention? That has to be the driving force of the song.” That’s why Comet worked so well [and] I think that’s why Octet is going to be great, because you really feel for these people, you understand what they’re going through and you see yourself in some of these stories.
I can’t wait to see it, I’ve been hearing bits and pieces along the way.
Everybody’s brought their own personal journey to the piece and as a result you get these eight people who are from slightly different worlds but are the perfect eight people for our version of the show. Their pitch is amazing, they’re nailing Malloy’s harmonies and really doing justice to what Malloy intended this piece to be. It’s a great concept: “We are so isolated by the internet but to battle this we’re going to sing eight-part harmony which is the most connected thing you can possibly do.” You have to trust the people around you.
Intensely collaborative. Was there a special process to choosing who would be in it?
It was a bit of a back-and-forth. We had to find the right mix of people, ages, sounds, and “colours” of voices to make sure the blend would be there, and you still don’t really know until you hear them sing the first song. Until we had everybody in the room, we couldn’t hear the full chords – not until our first full sing through on our first day of rehearsals in August on a Tuesday afternoon, when we had a Comet that night. At one point, I looked over at Chris and we smiled: “We got the right people.” There’s always an element of the unknown when you cast any musical, and this one was so specific because there is nothing to hide behind.
And for you?
It’s funny because it’s the first show I’ve done ever where they don’t need me to play the piano, so I feel a bit helpless. They have to create the whole world by themselves: entries, tempos, cut offs. Everything is built into the show. Dave Malloy was so specific about that: there is no one boss. It’s a show about eight people; no single one of them is in charge of the music. Make sure that everybody has agency for their own songs. It’s been great watching them try to find that kind of muscle. There’ll be a bit of hesitancy in diving into a song, but as soon as they start singing the magic happens.”
Amazing, and a good note to finish on … giving the audience a sense of the magic – beyond just saying “It’s about internet addiction and it’s a cappella.” It’s so much more.
It really is. It’s ultimately more about a discovery of your own association with the internet. Malloy talks about how inescapable the internet is for all of us, and he just uses a really clever way to remind us. I think it is the cleverest thing he has done. He doesn’t use just words. Sometimes a simple “oo and ah” and a vocal painting of the world gives you a different interpretation of what the internet is to these people and to all of us. It’s eclectic, it’s kind of weird, it’s not for everyone, but it is really beautiful theatre.
Octet, with its all-Canadian (or Canada-based) cast of excellent singer/actors, plays at Crow’s Theatre from September 9 - October 12. www.crowstheatre.com
MUSIC THEATRE QUICK PICKS
King Gilgamesh (and the Man of the Wild)
By Jesse Lavercombe, Seth Bockley, & Ahmed Moneka.
Directed by Seth Bockley.
A raucous Dora-winning production weaving together the world’s oldest epic with a modern Toronto bromance between an American Jew and Iraqi Muslim… all scored by Ahmed Moneka’s 2025 Juno-nominated six-piece Arabic-jazz band. It’s a lot of fun and unexpectedly profound with excellent
performances from the leads amplified and supported by the band.
Till October 5, at Soulpepper’s Michael Young Theatre
Ride the Cyclone Shifting Ground Collective
By Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell of Victoria-based Atomic Vaudeville.
The third full-scale production from tiny but mighty young company Shifting Ground Collective. A Canadian show that debuted in 2009 and hasn’t stopped appearing on stages around Canada, the US and the UK. Saskatchewan’s Saint Cassian High School’s Chamber Choir has never won anything, until one fateful day when they ride the Cyclone rollercoaster …
September 24-October 4 at the Annex Theatre
www.shiftinggroundcollective.com
Bright Star, Garner Theatre Productions
By Steve Martin & Edie Brickell.
A first full-scale outing of Garner Theatre Productions, created by artistic director Donna Garner to concentrate on “creating opportunities for ambitious actor/musician-driven work.”
The Tony Award-winning musical tale of redemption by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell, performed as you have never seen it before — by a full cast of actor musicians each playing up to five different instruments as well as singing and inhabiting the characters of the story – two generations of an Appalachian Mountain family.
September 30 - October 26 at the CAA Theatre
www.mirvish.com/shows/bright-star
Les Ballets Trockadero de Montecarlo’s 50th anniversary tour
The famous — or infamous — “Trocks”, New York’s renowned all-male ballerinas, return with a wickedly funny new program, sure to stun with their trademark mix. In size 12 pointe shoes, of top-notch technique and comic timing.
October 18 and 19 only at the Elgin Winter Garden Theatre
Jennifer Parr is a Toronto-based director, dramaturge, fight director and acting coach, brought up from a young age on a rich mix of musicals, Shakespeare and new Canadian plays.
